Burnt Kisses
by fooboo24
Summary: Well, how else is Katara supposed to heal Zuko's burnt lips? Katara/Zuko. Zutara.


**This is a one-shot!**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Avatar. D:

~P~

_Burnt Kisses_

~P~

"And Aang just about burned Sokka's wolf tail off!"

Katara laughed then at Zuko finishing his story – he had been telling her about his Firebending practice with Aang earlier that day, which apparently hadn't ended too well on her brother's part. She smiled then at the ex-Fire Prince, and he grinned back, before throwing some recently chopped up carrots into the pot in front of him.

"That was the last of the vegetables, Katara," he told her, placing down the knife he had been using to chop them. "Is there anything else you want me to do?"

Katara smiled at him, her eyes shining with gratitude. Shaking her head, she said, "No, but thank you, Zuko. Thank you, like, a lot."

"My pleasure," he bowed slightly to her, and she elbowed him jokingly.

"No need to be so formal anymore, Zuko – we're family now," she told him.

She noticed him relax again, and he sat down on the log behind him, sighing. "Thanks for that, by the way," he said randomly, and Katara raised an eyebrow at him.

"For what?" she blinked at him.

"For allowing me to join you all – I know we all started off, um, less than ideally, but I'm happy that you all gave me another chance," he explained. His voice dropped several octaves at the next thing he said, and his gaze fell to the ground. "Especially you, Katara..."

Though she knew he didn't want her to hear what he had said, she did, and her cheeks flamed up just slightly. Smiling to herself, she said back quietly, "I'm glad I did, too."

Turning then, she directed her smile at him, and he looked up her and caught it, smiling back. It crossed Katara's mind then just how much she had come to enjoy the Firebender's company. Over the past few weeks that he had been in her group, the two had begun to spend more time together – especially after their little trip going after the Southern Raiders. She looked at him as a good friend that she could genuinely trust and this was reinforced by hours of just talking and hanging around with one another.

But lately, the Waterbender had noted that every time she hung around him, her heart beat just a little bit faster and her cheeks began to flare up in a blush followed by a sheepish smile. She thought about him more often than before, and in a different light than before, as well. The way she used to think about Aang, she thought about Zuko now. And though all of this made her feel confused and light-headed each time she tried to analyze the situation, she still did not cease spending time with him.

Katara was snapped out of her thinking then, though, when she heard the clang of dishes, and she was surprised to see the young man collecting dirty dishes and bringing out cleaner ones that would be used for dinner that evening. Her smile grew larger at this sight – yet another thing she liked about him: he was selfless and helpful. He regularly offered her help, like that night – he had come back from Firebending with Aang and was utterly exhausted, and yet he still offered Katara some much-needed assistance in starting dinner without even her urging him. He just volunteered, unlike anybody else in the group. And Katara highly appreciated every bit of it.

"You don't have to help anymore, honestly, Zuko. You're tired, and should rest up a little before dinner," she advised him, releasing the spoon in her hand into the pot of soup and reaching out in front of her to relieve the dishes from his hands.

He pulled them away, smiling at her. "No, I want to help, Katara. I was raised to always lend a helping hand where it's needed."

Beaming at him, the Waterbender leaned forward and placed grateful kiss on his cheek before turning back to the pot of soup and stirring it, sheepishly avoiding eye contact with him.

Placing a hand on his cheek and blinking, Zuko then drifted into a dreamy state as he continued to gather dirty dishes (mostly created by Toph and Sokka from a few days beforehand) and wash them. He kept turning back to sneak looks at Katara from the washing station, and he thought about how much he had come to like her. He had always kind of liked her – obviously, the first few times they interacted, it was negative – but after that, especially in the past few weeks, had his affections for her grown. He admired how while she was gentle, caring, and motherly, she was also fearless, fierce, and powerful.

The only things that were preventing him from pursuing the Waterbender was his irrational fear of rejection, and the fact that the Avatar clearly had feelings for her – he wasn't about to embarrass himself getting rejected nor was he going to take the chance of hurting his friend while also risking getting his butt kicked by him! And so instead, he admired her from afar and settled with his friendship with her, which he enjoyed anyhow.

"Could you please heat up this fire a bit, Zuko?" Katara asked him, pointing at the flames licking at the large soup pot. Nodding, he finished drying the last utensil in his small collection of cleaned dishes, and standing up, he outstretched his hand towards the fire, which went bright blue for a few second before returning to normal. Sitting back down on the log now that he had finished his activities, he watched Katara tending to the soup, and she asked then, "Hey, have you seen Aang around? It's been at least two hours since you two finished your training session..." She looked around, examining the distance closely for any sign of the energetic Avatar.

Zuko shrugged. "Also immediately after we finished, he ran off with Momo and started Airbending. He hasn't Airbent in a while, what with us hiding around here in the Fire Nation. He probably just wanted to blow off a little excess steam – he'll turn up for dinner. But," he stood up then, "I'll go get the others – I figure you were asking about Aang because dinner's just about done?"

Nodding and smiling at him, he chuckled slightly before wandering into their little camp to go and get the others.

~P~

Ten minutes later, Toph, Suki, and Sokka were all gathered around the pot of boiling soup, eagerly awaiting dinner. Zuko handed Katara clean bowls, which she carefully deposited equal amounts of soup into and handed to her friends. Serving Zuko last, Katara looked around for Aang again, concerned. _Where is he?_ she wondered to herself, frowning.

She was considering waiting, but as she looked down at the delicious pot of soup, she felt her stomach rumble abruptly, and she decided that it was okay if Aang was just a little late – it was nothing to get too worked up about. Receiving a bowl for herself, she reached for the ladle in which to pour herself a bowl, but she was stopped when she heard an excited howl in the distance.

Turning her head, as all her friends had, she saw Aang in the distance, who was flying around on an air ball, chasing after a flying Momo for some reason. "Get back here!" he yelled at the lemur, a large grin adorning his childish features.

As they got closer, Momo landed on the ground and Katara smiled at Aang, expecting him to slow down, but it quickly became apparent that he wasn't intending to. Momo, whose fist was clutching something, noticed Aang coming after him again, and he jumped onto Suki's shoulder, surprising the Earth Kingdom girl. Aang came to an abrupt stop in front of the group, grinning evilly. Glaring at the lemur playfully, he brought his hands together by his side, forming an air ball in his hands.

"C'mon, Momo," he laughed, "give my ball back!"

Katara looked at Momo's paw then, and noticed that the thing he was holding was the little steel ball that Aang used to perform his Airbending tricks.

Sokka and Toph weren't paying attention the situation, eating away at their soup happily, but Suki was staring at Momo on her shoulder, chattering away, and Katara and Zuko were staring at the elated Aang.

"I'll give you to the count of three, okay, buddy?" Aang whispered to the monkey, who gave him a frightened look. "One..." Momo didn't hand back the ball, as expected. Aang allowed the air ball in his hands to get progressively bigger each second. "Two..." Still no ball. It wasn't until the last second that Katara realized what Aang was about to do, and reaching out to stop him, she was a moment too late, and he let out the controlled blast of wind at Momo on the count of three. "THREE!"

As expected, Momo jumped away from Suki and then onto Toph's shoulder, who looked up and around, confused. The air ball hit Suki head on, and with a loud cry, she dropped her full bowl of burning soup on her leg, which earned yet another yelp.

Katara glowered at Aang as he began to fire up yet another air ball, this time in the direction of Toph, as unsuspecting as she may me. "Hey, what's going on?" she cried upon hearing Aang giggle maniacally at the lemur on her shoulder.

Reaching forward, Katara said, "Aang—" but was cut off when he sent another gust of wind flying at the blind Earthbender, followed by a laugh on the Avatar's part. The air ball knocked Toph over and sent her soup flying into the air before landing on her feet, effectively scalding them. "Ow! Ow, ow, ow! My feet!" she cried, gripping at the body parts in question in pain.

At this point, to avoid being next after Sokka in Momo's jumping game and Aang's air assaults, Zuko stood up and inched away from the group slightly before sipping at his soup, something he instantly regretted. The scorching liquid reached his lips in a split second, burning them and causing him to pull it away from his mouth with a start. The ex-Fire Prince stood there, pathetically spluttering in a useless attempt to soothe his now sensitive lips.

Instead of going for Sokka like Katara thought, Momo made towards her, but she stepped out of the way of the mischievous little thing before turning to her side to lecture Aang and check up on Suki and Toph. This, however, didn't stop the Avatar from sending an air ball her direction. Jumping out of the way of it, it instead hit the pot behind her, which sent it tipping over at her, threatening to burn her, as well. Katara, though, wouldn't have it, and she Waterbent the soup away from her as it made contact with the ground and back into the pot. She had the majority of the liquid back in the pot quickly, but just as she was bending the last bit in, did she bump into Sokka, who had, up until then, been avoiding the risk of getting burnt skillfully.

"Hey!" The Water Tribe warrior shouted at her as she did so. The action caused her brother's soup to go pouring down onto his lap and shins. Howling, he hopped up and began to clutch at them dramatically.

Katara turned around to her brother then, holding her hands up. "Sokka! I'm so sorry!" However, she could not get him to calm down, and she quickly decided that it would be easier if she just left him to his own devices. She took a few seconds to look around at the once-peaceful setting around her, which consisted of each of her friends sitting there, cradling whatever body part they had burned in pain.

Turning then, she glared at Aang, who had finally caught up to Momo and gotten his ball back. "Look, Katara! I got my ball back!" he smiled brightly at her, but then he noticed her darkened expression. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked innocently.

"Aang!" she shouted shrilly, motioning around to their friends. "You just made a total mess! Not to mention, you've managed to burn everyone but Zuko and me! How irresponsible can you be?"

The young Avatar cringed at her tone of voice, and when she was done lecturing him, he looked at the ground, ashamed. "I'm sorry, Katara," he told her truthfully. "I was just having a bit of fun, I promise. I'll even help—"

"No," she stuck her hand up, effectively stopping him midsentence. "I'll do it myself."

Turning back to the scene behind her, she saw all three of her friends sitting in a small circle, calmed but still rubbing at their burned areas. Sighing, she knew she'd have to heal them soon. Aang stepped closer to her, his hand outstretched. "Please, Katara, I'm sorry. I really am."

"And you're forgiven," she told him reluctantly. She didn't want him to go unpunished for his irresponsibility, but what else could she do right then? Other things – people – needed to be attended to right then. "Just go."

She heard him breathe in from behind her, as if he wanted to say something else, but he didn't, and she then heard his footsteps in the grass as he moped off, leaving the group for a while.

Katara then made her way back to the pot of soup, and placing her hand on the rim, she frowned into it, seeing little pieces of dirt and grass in the mixture now that it had made contact with the ground. _Well, there goes all of mine and Zuko's hard work... _she thought grumpily.

Sighing again, she quickly collected up the bowls that littered their campsite before making her way to her tent to retrieve her pouch of water so that she could heal the lot of them.

~P~

"Ow, Katara," Sokka whined as his sister moved her hands over his left shin, even though they weren't making any physical contact. Despite this, the water was stinging at his almost non-existent burn.

"Oh, quiet," she shushed him. "It's almost gone." Sokka crossed his arms and sighed, and allowed his sister to finish healing his burns. A few more moments passed, and she placed her healing water back in its pouch. "There, all done."

Standing up slowly, Sokka lifted his leg up and down and inspected it as if it to check if she had missed any burns. After reassuring himself that there weren't, he smiled at his sister genuinely. "Thanks for healing us, sis." He motioned to Toph and Suki then, who had both been healed before him and were sitting not far from the two siblings, talking.

"No problem," she nodded, returning the smile.

A few moments of silence passed, and then Sokka said, "How about we just go into town for dinner tonight?" He motioned to the small Fire Nation town that was just down the hill from their campsite, and gave his sister a pleading look.

Sighing, Katara looked back at the soup pot behind her. The soup had been rendered inedible by Aang, and it would take too long to remake it, so it wasn't like there were any other options... "Okay," she told him. "It only makes sense, anyway."

Sokka pumped his fist then before walking over to the Earthbender and his girlfriend to inform them of their new dinner plans for that night.

Katara turned around again then, and noticed Zuko sitting on the ground a few feet away from her. "Hey," she called at him. When he didn't respond, she gave him a look and raised her eyebrow at him. "What's wrong? Did you get burned, too? I didn't see—"

"Not really," he mumbled out painfully, his lips bright red and extra-sensitive. Katara's look only grew more perplexed, and he sighed at her. "I—"

The Firebender stopped talking then and stared at something behind Katara. Blinking at him, she turned around and saw Aang standing just slightly away from her, holding his hands behind his back.

"Um, hi," he rubbed the back of his bald, arrowed head, embarrassed.

Hands on her hips, Katara gave Aang an unimpressed look. "What is it, Aang?" she inquired at him harshly.

"I, uh, these are for you," his hands flew out from behind his back, and he revealed that he had been holding a small bouquet of freshly-picked daisies. "I'm really sorry, Katara."

Her scrunched up face scrutinized the Airbender for a few more moments, before it softened, and she smiled at Aang, causing Zuko's stomach to twist with jealousy. "Oh, Aang!" she took the flowers from his hands and smelled them, and the Avatar smiled at her. "Thank you!"

She hugged him then, which he returned. Zuko turned away then, not wishing to watch the little scene.

"So am I _actually _forgiven now, Katara?" Aang asked her hopefully.

Giggling, Katara nodded. "Yes, Aang, you're _actually _forgiven." Aang's smile grew wider at this, and he looked around for the others.

"Hey, where is everybody?"

"Oh," Katara looked to her side, and noticed that her brother and the others had already gone into town without them. "Sokka wanted to go get dinner in town, and considering you kind of, uh, ruined the soup, I figured it would be okay if we did it this one time. So, they probably went in to town to look for possible restaurants." Aang nodded. "You can go join them if you want," she told him. "I've just got to talk to Zuko quickly, and then we'll meet you guys down there, okay?"

Peering down at the Firebender behind her, Aang looked back at her, smiled, and then nodded again before taking off down the hill.

Kneeling down beside Zuko then, she placed her flowers down on the ground beside her and then put her hand on his shoulder. "Sorry about that," she told him. "So what were you saying?"

"I-It's not important," he stuttered out quietly, keeping his face turned away.

"Did you burn anything, though, Zuko?" she asked him. He nodded slowly, and she gave him the same look as before. "So... where?"

Turning to face her, an embarrassed flush flaming across his face, he said, "Um, m-my lips." Katara blinked then, surprised. He held his hands up in front of him then. "Not that I expect you to, uh, heal those, though. I just burned them when I was sipping at my soup – it was my fault. I was just sitting here and waiting until you finished healing everyone so that we could go from there..."

Katara's eyes were still wide, but then they glinted mischievously as she leaned forward.

"K-Katara," Zuko started, "what are you doing?"

"I think I can do something about that burn of yours," she smiled at him. Licking her lips, she leaned forward just a little more and closed the gap between her and Zuko.

At first, the pressure of Katara's lips against his hurt, considering they were still burned significantly. But quickly, the pain and sensitiveness were alleviated from his lips, and soon there was none left at all. At this point, he actually began to enjoy the kiss, and though he knew he should have pulled away, he instead placed a hand on the back of her head to pull her closer.

A few quiet moments passed before they pulled back from each other, both panting just slightly. Staring at each other for just a few seconds, Katara asked quietly, "So, do they feel healed?"

Zuko opened his mouth to answer then, but he was prevented from talking when Sokka's voice called at them.

"Hey, you two! Hurry up! We're all hungry, and we're all waiting for you two!"

Katara glared at her brother's impatience, while Zuko stuttered out, "M-maybe we should go?" A blush was stretching across the length of his face as he said this, though he secretly didn't want to go at all.

Katara pulled back a little farther from Zuko then, and she shouted at her brother, "Just go without us! We'll be there in a few more minutes!" She saw her brother throw his hands up in the air out of frustration before turning and walking back down the hill.

Zuko looked up at her curiously then, and though he wanted spend more time with her, he couldn't help but ask, "Why? I mean, not that I don't like being with you, I do... but my lips are—"

Katara poked his lips playfully then, causing him to stop talking and blink at her. "I think I see a little burn right there!" She poked at the center of his lips before smirking at his expression and leaning in again, kissing him.

The kiss was sweet and Zuko found himself pulling her closer to him again, and when she wrapped her arms around his neck in her own attempt to bring herself closer, he didn't argue with it, he welcomed it.

During their first kiss, despite how much he enjoyed it, there was a little nagging voice in the back of his brain saying that she had feelings for Aang and vice versa and that they shouldn't have been kissing at all – but with this second coming kiss, he knew his suspicions about her feelings for the Avatar were purely imaginary, or else she wouldn't have started this new lip lock with him. And with this new information settled in his mind, the Firebender found himself enjoying the kiss just a little bit more now.

When a few minutes passed and their lungs began to ache for air, they reluctantly pulled back, and Zuko smiled at her and said, "Well, you are the healer here. Who am I to argue with you?"

The Waterbender laughed then, having completely forgotten about the flowers Aang had given her, before wrapping her arms around his neck to kiss him again.

~P~

_End~!_

~P~

**Author's Notes: **Fluffy-ass fics FTW! This was written for a Zutara contest on deviantart. Originally, this was an idea I had for a Makorra (Korra/Mako) one-shot, but then I modified it to be Zutara instead! It's a sillier fic, I will admit, but I kind of like it!


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